Server awakened during thunderstorm

[Seven]

Today we had a strong thunderstorm pass through and we lost power for a few seconds two separate times throughout the day. Each time the power flickered, the APC UPS beeped then the server spun up from its S3 sleep state.

 

The server is attached to an APC BACK UPS battery via USB (serial?) cable. I'm wondering what could have caused the server to awaken from S3 sleep each time the power flickered. Is there some setting that I have set wrong for the UPS? Can it be something else?

 

I'm hoping it's a simple setting that I have wrong somewhere. It's running unraid version 5.0 final.

 

Any input will be appreciated!

[drawz]

Must have woken on the USB signal from the UPS reporting the power outage. Similar to moving your mouse to wake your desktop. Just a guess.

[Seven]

Here's the syslog file. The first power event starts at 12:04 PM.

syslog-2013-09-12.txt

[Seven]

I still haven't found a resolution for this issue. Every time the power hiccups, the server starts up from S3 sleep. Is it possible something related to apcupsd daemon? Does anyone know if there are tunable settings that control how servers behave on power related events?

[WeeboTech]

I'm wondering what could have caused the server to awaken from S3 sleep each time the power flickered.

 

It was scared!!!!

 

Reality is, the APC is probably sending an alert along the USB/Serial interface so the computer can track it.

Thus it's causing wake up.  Perhaps a setting in the bios to not allow USB to wake the computer. However, if you do that, how will you wake the computer?

[lewcass]

I agree with the other posters. The theory of the UPS sending a signal makes sense.

 

Are you running a script to automatically initiate S3 sleep? If so, it will go back to sleep anyway once the drives spin down again. So not really a big deal, unless your power is subject to unusually frequent interruptions.

[Seven]

I'm wondering what could have caused the server to awaken from S3 sleep each time the power flickered.

 

It was scared!!!!

 

Reality is, the APC is probably sending an alert along the USB/Serial interface so the computer can track it.

Thus it's causing wake up.  Perhaps a setting in the bios to not allow USB to wake the computer. However, if you do that, how will you wake the computer?

 

I tested all possible combinations in the BIOS related to S3 power management behavior but the server still wakes from S3 sleep when APC-UPS battery backup power kicks in. I would like for the server to wake upon receiving the magic packet on the ethernet interface only, not whenever it detects main power loss by the UPS. 

 

It seems I'm the only one experiencing this issue so far?

[WeeboTech]

I'm wondering what could have caused the server to awaken from S3 sleep each time the power flickered.

 

It was scared!!!!

 

Reality is, the APC is probably sending an alert along the USB/Serial interface so the computer can track it.

Thus it's causing wake up.  Perhaps a setting in the bios to not allow USB to wake the computer. However, if you do that, how will you wake the computer?

 

I tested all possible combinations in the BIOS related to S3 power management behavior but the server still wakes from S3 sleep when APC-UPS battery backup power kicks in. I would like for the server to wake upon receiving the magic packet on the ethernet interface only, not whenever it detects main power loss by the UPS. 

 

It seems I'm the only one experiencing this issue so far?

 

 

Actually this is probably the way it should be. 

If the power goes out for a long time, the UPS will need to signal a shutdown and the machine will need to be in operation if the shutdown is to occur.

 

 

I think it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.

[Seven]

@WeeboTech - You are probably right... 

 

I'm not sure but maybe the server awakens on power loss and will do a hard shutdown after X amount of time if main power isn't restored by then. I'll have to test this...

 

Thanks very much for your help!

[WeeboTech]

@WeeboTech - You are probably right... 

 

I'm not sure but maybe the server awakens on power loss and will do a hard shutdown after X amount of time if main power isn't restored by then. I'll have to test this...

 

Thanks very much for your help!

 

That's what it's supposed to do. It is usually configurable.

 

The only other way around this is to disconnect the USB or serial connection.

 

The issue then becomes, when you come to the point of having to power down the machine because the batteries are close to depletion, there will be no communication.

[drawz]

@WeeboTech - You are probably right... 

 

I'm not sure but maybe the server awakens on power loss and will do a hard shutdown after X amount of time if main power isn't restored by then. I'll have to test this...

 

Thanks very much for your help!

 

That's what it's supposed to do. It is usually configurable.

 

The only other way around this is to disconnect the USB or serial connection.

 

The issue then becomes, when you come to the point of having to power down the machine because the batteries are close to depletion, there will be no communication.

 

Not much risk to the server or data on the drives if it's in S3 and power is lost due to UPS depletion. You'll just have an unclean shutdown and possibly lose the state of any apps that are running. Your run time in S3 will be pretty long. Maybe it makes sense to disconnect the USB connection if you can't disable it in the BIOS.